/*
 * Detail.java July 2012
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2012, Niall Gallagher <niallg@users.sf.net>
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
 * implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 * permissions and limitations under the License.
 */

package wx.xml.simpleframework.xml.core;

import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Constructor;
import java.util.List;

import wx.xml.simpleframework.xml.DefaultType;
import wx.xml.simpleframework.xml.Namespace;
import wx.xml.simpleframework.xml.NamespaceList;
import wx.xml.simpleframework.xml.Order;
import wx.xml.simpleframework.xml.Root;

/**
 * The <code>Detail</code> object is used to provide various details
 * for a type. Most of the data that can be acquired from this can
 * also be acquired from the <code>Class</code>. However, in some
 * environments, particularly Android, reflection and introspection
 * is very slow. This class attempts to reduce the overheads by
 * caching all the data extracted from the class for future use.
 *
 * @author Niall Gallagher
 * @see wx.xml.simpleframework.xml.core.Support
 */
interface Detail {

    /**
     * This method is used to determine whether strict mappings are
     * required. Strict mapping means that all labels in the class
     * schema must match the XML elements and attributes in the
     * source XML document. When strict mapping is disabled, then
     * XML elements and attributes that do not exist in the schema
     * class will be ignored without breaking the parser.
     *
     * @return true if strict parsing is enabled, false otherwise
     */
    boolean isStrict();

    /**
     * This is used to determine if the generated annotations are
     * required or not. By default generated parameters are required.
     * Setting this to false means that null values are accepted
     * by all defaulted fields or methods depending on the type.
     *
     * @return this is used to determine if defaults are required
     */
    boolean isRequired();

    /**
     * This is used to determine if the class is an inner class. If
     * the class is a inner class and not static then this returns
     * false. Only static inner classes can be instantiated using
     * reflection as they do not require a "this" argument.
     *
     * @return this returns true if the class is a static inner
     */
    boolean isInstantiable();

    /**
     * This is used to determine whether this detail represents a
     * primitive type. A primitive type is any type that does not
     * extend <code>Object</code>, examples are int, long and double.
     *
     * @return this returns true if no XML annotations were found
     */
    boolean isPrimitive();

    /**
     * This is used to acquire the super type for the class that is
     * represented by this detail. If the super type for the class
     * is <code>Object</code> then this will return null.
     *
     * @return returns the super type for this class or null
     */
    Class getSuper();

    /**
     * This returns the type represented by this detail. The type is
     * the class that has been scanned for annotations, methods and
     * fields. All super types of this are represented in the detail.
     *
     * @return the type that this detail object represents
     */
    Class getType();

    /**
     * This returns the name of the class represented by this detail.
     * The name is either the name as specified in the last found
     * <code>Root</code> annotation, or if a name was not specified
     * within the discovered root then the Java Bean class name of
     * the last class annotated with a root annotation.
     *
     * @return this returns the name of the object being scanned
     */
    String getName();

    /**
     * This returns the <code>Root</code> annotation for the class.
     * The root determines the type of deserialization that is to
     * be performed and also contains the name of the root element.
     *
     * @return this returns the name of the object being scanned
     */
    Root getRoot();

    /**
     * This returns the order annotation used to determine the order
     * of serialization of attributes and elements. The order is a
     * class level annotation that can be used only once per class
     * XML schema. If none exists then this will return null.
     * of the class processed by this scanner.
     *
     * @return this returns the name of the object being scanned
     */
    Order getOrder();

    /**
     * This returns the <code>Default</code> annotation access type
     * that has been specified by this. If no default annotation has
     * been declared on the type then this will return null.
     *
     * @return this returns the default access type for this type
     */
    DefaultType getAccess();

    /**
     * This returns the <code>DefaultType</code> override used for this
     * detail. An override is used only when the class contains no
     * annotations and does not have a <code>Transform</code> of any
     * type associated with it. It allows serialization of external
     * objects without the need to annotate the types.
     *
     * @return this returns the  access type override for this type
     */
    DefaultType getOverride();

    /**
     * This returns the <code>Namespace</code> annotation that was
     * declared on the type. If no annotation has been declared on the
     * type this will return null as not belonging to any.
     *
     * @return this returns the namespace this type belongs to, if any
     */
    Namespace getNamespace();

    /**
     * This returns the <code>NamespaceList</code> annotation that was
     * declared on the type. A list of namespaces are used to simply
     * declare the namespaces without specifically making the type
     * belong to any of the declared namespaces.
     *
     * @return this returns the namespace declarations, if any
     */
    NamespaceList getNamespaceList();

    /**
     * This returns a list of the methods that belong to this type.
     * The methods here do not include any methods from the super
     * types and simply provides a means of caching method data.
     *
     * @return returns the list of methods declared for the type
     */
    List<MethodDetail> getMethods();

    /**
     * This returns a list of the fields that belong to this type.
     * The fields here do not include any fields from the super
     * types and simply provides a means of caching method data.
     *
     * @return returns the list of fields declared for the type
     */
    List<FieldDetail> getFields();

    /**
     * This returns the annotations that have been declared for this
     * type. It is preferable to acquire the declared annotations
     * from this method as they are cached. Older versions of some
     * runtime environments, particularly Android, are slow at this.
     *
     * @return this returns the annotations associated with this
     */
    Annotation[] getAnnotations();

    /**
     * This returns the constructors that have been declared for this
     * type. It is preferable to acquire the declared constructors
     * from this method as they are cached. Older versions of some
     * runtime environments, particularly Android, are slow at this.
     *
     * @return this returns the constructors associated with this
     */
    Constructor[] getConstructors();
}
